Hi
I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this? When Looping an audio example there is a gap at the end of the audio example before it repeats/Loops.
Is there any way to have the audio loop seemlessly without the gap on iBooks Author?
The audio example is about 5 seconds long and loops fine in any other application.
Thanks
David
iBook, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2), Logic Pro X, iBooks Author
that might always be some gap but it is very likely that you can make it disappear to be all but unnoticeable. the problem is likely in the source of the audio has an elongated end. well as i typed this i saw that you said it worked in other apps, so on that basis perhaps that is not the case. i was going to tell you to edit out the empty space at the end of the audio file, but if that works in other apps, perhaps not your problem.
the only other thing i can think about is do you have another animation going on in the page. your iPad is likely a uniprocessor and can only do one thing at a time. i assumed this is happening on the iPad and not the mac, but you didn't quite say.
wish i could nail this better. thought about not even sending it, but perhaps there is something here for you or else someone else will reply.
Thanks for your input Richard. The gap is not on the source material. I checked in several other programs and they all Loop correctly with no gap. The gap is heard on both the iBooks Author on Mac or when published to iPad. The problem has been around for a while in iBooks Author. I was just hoping it was fixed by now.
The gap also occurs in Pages and Keynote when an audio example is Looped.
The thing is, that it used to work correctly back in Mountain Lion. When the playback controls were a nice silver bar.
Now I can't even loop a piece of audio (without a gap) using QuickTime Player! I wonder if the problem is QuickTime Player?
Any suggestions of how I can create a book with audio examples about 5 seconds long that loop correctly?
I recently tried a program called GameSalad which is basically an App creation program and looping audio is not a problem. But was hoping to keep the creation using an Apple program if possible.
Thanks for reading
i found your reply interesting and contrary to my experience, so i actually ran some experiments on a book that i have finished and am in the process of packaging for delivery.
i use a lot of audio files in my book of all different types (.aiff, .mp3, .wav). most all of my audio is contained in keynotes which are subsequently dropped onto a ibook page using the keynote widget. i have a mixture of looping and non-looping audios. all are set to play automatically i have a few audios that were drag and dropped directly onto an ibook page. none are selected to loop and must be clicked on to loop rather than play automatically.
everything works as i would expect. i looked into detail at two files. it is generally not a distraction for my work if there is a short gap, so i rarely use an audio editor to eliminate the gap from my source. on a few occasions where i wanted to loop and the gap in the source file was too large aesthetically, i edited most of it out. it is certainly not seamless looping as i have a gap in the source. but i can certainly say that the gap during the replay pretty much matched the gap in the source, one second for one audio file and two seconds for the second audio file. i did not attempt to edit the file and eliminate the gap in the source completely and then see if i could detect a pause in the sound when played in the book or just natively in keynote. i am at 10.10.4 in the os 6.5.3 in keynote and 2.3 in ib author. yes, i am about one release behind in everything, a big afraidy cat to upgrade and see none of my book working correctly anymore. i have a big dilemma. i take it you are current in everything. back to you though.
it did not matter whether the audio was in a keynote or just on a ibook page. same result. note: play automatically did not work correctly for me for an audio on an ibook page. i tried that in my experiment tonight, but do not use that feature in my book. i thought perhaps (1) that your results and mine are different because maybe use drop into the interactive widget as i do not. i tried doing that, but results were practically the same. (2) or i started to wonder if your system might be constrained in real memory and could that be causing a slight performance hit. i am on a 16 gb mac. i am not sure, but i think there is some virtual paging going on in memory constraint systems. in the end as i reread your reply, i am leaning to believe it might have been introduced in the mac os, that you are using or perhaps in the new release of ib author.
i've heard seamless audio looping and it sounds nice and professional. since my audios usually have a graceful end and since i need not strive for that effect, i don't know for sure how closely i can get to it. but i am convinced that with my hardware and software and with a near seamless input audio file, i would have a near seamless result. you have said you've seen this in order mac software. with my software release, i don't believe the gap is any bigger than that in the audio file. i have to think that the latest software might have introduced this, especially if you have lots of internal storage and you are not constrained there.
i did not try this on the iPad, but my feeling is that the gap on the iPad is about the same as the gap in the input audio file.
it appears to work in my configuration as you remember it worked in mountain lion.
I've done several tests today and can now prove that I cannot LOOP any audio file using Quicktime Player or adding same audio to iBooks Author and select LOOP feature. There is a definite glitch or gap at the beginning when the file is repeated. I think this is a bug in the software?
However, if I open the exact same file in Audacity, Transcribe, Gamesalad or Logic Pro X or Soundscape the file will correctly LOOP as it should.
The file has no extra gap at the beginning. I've tried all file formats including WAV and at 8bit, 16bit and 24bit.
The same result on any type of audio file. iBooks Author CANNOT SEAMLESSLY LOOP an audio example. QuicktimePlayer CANNOT SEAMLESSLY LOOP an audio file.
The audio example was only 5 seconds long, however I tried short files and longer files.
The reason I mention QuicktimePlayer is I went back to the basics on a MAC.
All I want to do is LOOP (seamlessly) with no gap a piece of music as part of an example for the book I'm writing and I can't do it. Can anyone please help me? Is this simply something that a MAC and most MAC apps can't do on their own?
QuicktimePlayer - cannot LOOP audio correctly
Pages - cannot LOOP audio correctly
Keynote - cannot LOOP audio correctly
iBooksAuthor - cannot LOOP audio correctly
Logic Pro X - CAN LOOP audio correctly
Audacity - CAN LOOP audio correctly
Transcribe - CAN LOOP audio correctly
So my question is this. How do I make a music instructional interactive book that has many small musical examples that will LOOP SEAMLESSLY correctly.
So far, I think it can't be done unless I create the book as an APP using something like Gamesalad.
Any suggestions from pro people who know how to write professional iBooks books?
I really want to use iBooks Author as it's easy to use for me. My background is audio. I know audio, music, bit rate, sample rate etc not computer programming. If I select an audio file to LOOP, that's what it should do, not sort of loop with a gap. I think the software should be much better at this.
Thanks to all who help me : )
i finally finished my latest book and have been testing it on several macs and iPads. as i did so, i thought about this post as i listened to my looping audios.
in general, the faster the processor, the less the gap. in fact, the slower the processor the more likely some of the audio in the beginning is noticeable clipped a bit. i have to think that this is not a bug but a design. my bet is that the software that doesn't give you seamless looping makes the decision as to what is next to do after the audio is played each time, while the pro audio software you mention decides beforehand. perhaps the software coder did this due to other considerations rather than an oversight.
i didn't do this, but i think the beginning part of the audio is lost on every loop when the processor is slower. i'll test that someday.
i think the only way you will achieve seamless looping in ibook is to request that an an enhancement. not likely to be a quick fix but your best bet to get a definitive answer.
How to smoothly Loop Audio in iBooks Author?
